San Diego County, San Diego Rat Control Situation:
Hi David, Is a UV blacklight still useful, exterior-wise, if it rains after the rodents leave their urine stains? I am in the process of performing exterior maintenance to better exclude my roof rats. 1) I have a 25 year old cedar shake roof in San Diego California with openings under each shake along the rake edge of the roof at the gable ends of my house. There's no drip edge, i.e. under the shakes I have roofing paper (now somewhat curled) that runs more or less up to and rests right atop the fascia board. Because I have skip sheathing, and since the cross section of a shake is a wedge that is up to one inch at the upper, thick end, this appears to create many huge entry points along the rake edges even though the sheathing is rabbeted into the fascia board. As a result, I'm thinking of getting a UV blacklight to use outside the house to sleuth for urine stains along the upper edge of the gable end shakes and fascia boards. My question is, how easily does the winter rain wash away the urine, rendering this a pointless exercise? 2) I noticed a new product called "rat-out gel" and was thinking of applying it along the rake edges mentioned above. Or, maybe I should just buy many rolls of X-Clude and use that instead. Or maybe both. Any comment? Thanks very much for your website, Doug
My response: First off, I do not have experience using UV lights to detect rat urine. But I do suspect that rain will severely limit the effectiveness of this approach. I have never heard of Rat-Out Gel or XClude, but I typically stick to physical barriers rather than repellent type devices. If your roof makes this impossible, you might have a tough time keeping the rats out.
San Diego Rat Control Tip of The Week
Why Don't High Pitch Sound Deterrent Machines And Strobing Lights Work Against Rats?
The first thing you need to understand about high pitch sound deterrent machines and strobing lights is that these machines have been officially announced as being fraudulent by the Federal Trade Commission. This is enough proof that the efficiency of these repelling devices is self-proclaimed and that they don't have anything to offer when it comes to repelling rats from your home.
Have you been wondering why these devices don't work against rats? Right here, we will be sharing all you need to know about them and why you should consider other means of getting rid of the rats in your home.
High pitch sound deterrent machines or strobing lights that are designed to repel rats using mechanical means. The former uses high pitch sounds that don't affect humans and is not audible to the human hearing to irritate the eardrums of small animals like rats and make them stay away from the areas the sound is coming from. While the latter is designed using a short wavelength of light rays to scare rats away in the night whenever they try to move around.
These devices might seem like a perfect way to repel rats, but the fact is that neither of these devices work. Rats are smart animals and can easily figure out if something poses a serious threat to them or not. Once they figure out that it doesn't, they will continue with their activities and withstand the effects caused by these devices.
Having shared this, you must consider other ways of getting rid of these rats in other to avoid wasting your hard-earned money. Neither of these devices will give you the results that you desire.
